James Porter

Texas
January 4, 2005

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute James Porter, a white man,
Jan. 4 for the May 28, 2000, murder of Rudy Delgado, a Latino man. The
murder took place while both men were serving time in prison at the
Telford Unit in Bowie County. Porter was in prison for murder with a
deadly weapon.

Porter, who has been called a white-supremacist, has reportedly
maintained that his killing Delgado was honorable. He killed Delgado, a
gay man, by bludgeoning him to death.

Porter asked U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield in federal district
court to declare him mentally competent so that he could withdraw any
further appeals of his conviction or sentence.

Texas has executed more people in the modern era than the next five
states combined. The state has been under increased scrutiny for its
handling of death penalty cases. In the past year, the Supreme Court has
heard three appeals from inmates on death row in Texas, and in each case
reversed the findings of the lower courts.

According to a recent New York Times article, legal experts maintain
that the Supreme Court's decision to hear these cases demonstrates "its
growing impatience with two of the courts that handle death penalty
cases from Texas: its highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal
Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,
in New Orleans."

The article also quoted Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote in June that the
Fifth Circuit was "paying lip service to principles" regarding appellate
law in upholding death sentences with "no foundation in the decisions of
this court."

The Court of Appeals' apparent disregard for upholding justice coupled
with the massive Houston Crime Lab scandal has caused many prominent
Texans, including former Gov. Mark White, Houston Police Chief Harold
Hurtt, and State Senator John Whitmire - all death penalty proponents -
to call for a moratorium of executions in Harris County.

Considering the existence of wide-scale problems such as crime lab
scandals and flagrant disregard for international law Texas should not
be in the business of state killing under any circumstances. Yet it
continues to carry out death sentences.

Please take a moment to write Gov. Perry asking for a moratorium on all
executions in Texas and to spare the life of James Scott Porter. Also,
please write the Board of Pardons and Paroles asking them to recommend
clemency in all cases considering the overwhelming turmoil within the
state justice system pertaining to the death penalty.

Contacts
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
Executive Clemency Section
P.O. Box 13401, Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
Fax (512) 467-0945

Here is the contact information for the Governor.

Honorable Rick Perry
Governor, State of Texas
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
(512) 463-1849 Fax